A winter storm packing excessive winds and probably a number of toes of snow blew into the Sierra Nevada on Saturday, triggering 1000’s of energy outages in California, closing a mountain freeway at Lake Tahoe and prompting an avalanche warning within the backcountry. The storm is anticipated to carry as a lot as 4 toes of snow to the higher elevations round Lake Tahoe by Monday morning, the National Weather Service mentioned.
A 250-mile stretch of the Sierra from north of Reno to south of Yosemite National Park was below a winter storm warning no less than till Sunday.
“Travel will be very difficult to impossible with whiteout conditions,” the climate service mentioned in Reno, the place rain began falling Saturday.
A flood advisory was in impact from Sacramento to the California coast close to San Francisco.
Caltrans by way of AP
The storm will affect the California shoreline into the southwest this weekend with “heavy to excessive rainfall along the Golden State coastal areas and widespread heavy snow from the Sierra into much of the intermountain West,” the National Weather Service mentioned in a assertion. The extreme rainfall will have an effect on the central California coast on Saturday, and Southern California across the better Los Angeles and San Diego areas on Sunday.
The U.S. Forest Service issued an avalanche warning for the backcountry within the mountains west of Lake Tahoe the place it mentioned “several feet of new snow and strong winds will result in dangerous avalanche conditions.”
A stretch of California Highway 89 was closed on account of heavy snow between Tahoe City and South Lake Tahoe, California, the freeway patrol mentioned. Interstate 80 between Reno and Sacramento remained open however chains have been required on tires for many automobiles.
More than 30,000 clients have been with out energy within the Sacramento space at one level Saturday morning. It had been restored to all however about 3,300 by noon. But forecasters warned winds gusting as much as 50 mph may carry down tree branches and energy traces later within the day.
About 10 inches of snow already had fallen at Mammoth Mountain ski resort south of Yosemite the place greater than 10 toes of snow has been recorded since early November.
“It just seems like every week or so, another major storm rolls in,” resort spokeswoman Lauren Burke mentioned.
The storm warning stretches into Sunday for many of the Sierra, and would not expire till Monday round Tahoe.
As a lot as 18 to twenty-eight inches of snow was forecast via the weekend at lake stage, and as much as 4 toes at elevations above 7,000 toes with 50 mph winds and gusts as much as 100 mph.
On the Sierra’s japanese slope, a winter climate advisory runs from 10 p.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. for Reno, Sparks and Carson City, with snow accumulations of 1 to three inches on valley flooring and as much as 8 inches above 5,000 toes.
The system will develop into a “large-scale and significant storm early next week” throughout the central and southern U.S. with heavy snow, rain and extreme climate, in keeping with the climate service. The snow is anticipated to unfold into the mountains of the central Rockies and Arizona Sunday, with totals of 6 to 12 inches anticipated via early Monday morning, the climate service mentioned.